The University with an Uniqueness: Plaksha University

The education sector in the country is providing technology integration in schools and learning institutions across the region. The new national education policy is to deliver, the challenges that have traditionally plagued the sector must be addressed .

The NEP has to be welcomed for the sheer fact that it is the first omnibus policy is 34 years. The country has waited far too long to upgrade its education system, which is so out of tune with the needs of the society. The policy’s intent is good. It wants to develop students’ ability to learn rather than just impart knowledge, end excessive focus on academics, identify and support unique capabilities of each student and offer flexibility in choice of subjects as per the child’s talent or interest.

The upcoming Plaksha University situated out of IT City Rd, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Punjab is not just another educational institute among the hundreds in India. The institute has a story like no other in the world. There are 45 entrepreneurs and chief executives came together to raise Rs 2,000 crore for Plaksha. This is at least four times the amount that the government spends to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Having people from diverse fields have helped shape the strategies of Plaksha. The current 45 members include CP Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra; Vineet Nayyar, former executive vice chairman, Tech Mahindra; Ashish Gupta, Co-founder, Helion Ventures; Pankaj Chaddah, Co-founder of Zomato; Ritesh Malik, Founder of Innov8; Pallav Nandhani, Founder of Fushiocharts, and Gaggan Hasteer, VP (Content Engineering) at Netflix, among others.

All programmes and courses at the university are designed by the leaders along with a special academic advisory board. The degrees have designed as per the need in today’s technology disruptive world like B Tech in Computer Science & AI, BTech in Robotics & Cyber-Physical Systems and B Tech in Biological Systems & Engineering andfinally B Tech in Data Science, Business and Economics. These courses are required in this Industry 4.0 scenario.

The university campus has in collaboration with universities, including UC Berkeley, Purdue University, MIT, and University of Pennsylvania, as well as tech companies like Google and IBM among others. Their bachelor's degree course will launch in 2021. The idea of reimagining higher education in technology was seeded around mid-2015 when Mohit got together with Neeraj Aggarwal, Chairman, Asia Pacific, Boston Consulting Group; Vineet Gupta, Co-founder and MD, Jamboree Education; Ashish Gupta, Founder of Benori Knowledge; and Manas Fuloria, Co-founder and CEO of Nagarro.

The founders has the vision in every few years, there is a massive shift in technologies. Right now, there is a lot of buzz around AI and data science. But there is no educational programme to train you for it. Hence Plaksha University is going to bridge the gap. It aims to be not “just another engineering school”. It wants to empower students to solve challenges in the next industrial revolution, especially in India. The team researched the industrial changes possible in the next four years.

Plaksha’s primary focus will be on problems specific to India, across sectors like urban planning, mobility, agriculture, hunger, transportation, etc. Alok Mittal, Co-founder and CEO of Indifi Technologies and Co-founder at Plaksha.

At Plaksha, students will be given real-world, complex problems to solve so that they learn to deal with uncertainty and the curriculum will also expose students to liberal arts, design thinking, and emphasise on leadership.